Gaza, April 13, Its amazing how we consider it a good day in Gaza if Israel is not continuously bombing killing civilians, children and women yet we are still suffering from complete shortages in everything which ignited a humanitarian crisis in the strip after major shortages in Medicine, cooking gas, fuel and electricity.

It seems like we got used to these crisis to the extent that they became our daily routine. Israel finally opened Gaza’s crossings today but honestly that made us feel nothing, they barely let in what Gaza needs so they wont make up for the week of closure but life goes on and so do we.

I don’t know how to describe what you feel and how you cope while living in Gaza, its like you are automatically programmed to deal with any sudden tragedies, events, bombing, crisis or any related matter.

Sometimes I get so overwhelmed by Gaza that I forget West Bank exists or the world exists. We are bound to be tracking the news, politics, on-ground events and daily recaps because this is the way it is and this is the way our lives are formatted.

What do you expect from us when we live in such a besieged coastal enclave? We live in the biggest open air prison. As for the mental siege, Israel cuts our electric power, supplies, fuel &amp; air if they could to keep us isolated and alone. In Gaza, every house has a story of tragedy whether directly affected by it or happened to a neighbor, loved one, relative, or friend. If Gazans aren’t participating in the funeral of a martyr they would be visiting injured people in the hospitals or helping the disabled or maybe running to the UNRWA to get some supplies or maybe trying to make a living by collecting gravels and stones near Gaza’s border putting their lives in total danger. Numerous kids, men and workers get shot by Israeli armed towers and they die or face serious injury while trying to make a living. People here are so swamped into our strange lifestyle that we seriously forget there is a world out there.

Its like we don’t have the time to be happy, live a normal life or have fun. We cant afford fun, we can afford only tragedies and miseries. We try to steal little moments so we can do something we like yet we do feel guilty inside thinking that maybe its not the time of luxury.

It’s a unique atmosphere of resilience and will power here in Gaza, something that I would have missed if I stayed in Cyprus Island where I was born and raised. You get this power and immunity towards every bad thing that might happen. Israel will bomb the hell out of us at night yet in the morning life goes on, children walk to their schools under heavy shooting and bombs, people leave for work, sun will shine and Gaza will never die. It gives every instinct inside of you a 10 times push and a huge kick where you can face anything in this world including death itself since your life and the life of your loved ones are in constant non-stop danger.

We also connect to all uprisings across the Arab world. We put the fundamentals of revolting back in 1948 by igniting a powerful intifada like no other which inspired the whole world and made it to the global dictionary. So we cant help but keep tracking uprisings everywhere and support it in every way possible. Ofcourse the global media outlets take different stands towards these uprisings digging deep to find a flaw in each and every one, but we don’t care. We support the people everywhere and believe in people-power. Palestinians become one in times of tragedy and become 1 with their fellow arabs in times of their tragedies too because simply we care.

We stood with Iraq and Lebanon during America’s and Israel’s animalistic war against them. We stood with Tunisians while they raised their voice against tyranny. We stood with Egyptians while they transformed tahrir (Liberation) sq. into a true solid meaning of Liberation, Egypt uprising was slightly different because we are tracking them non-stop, we didn’t sleep and we were very attached to them perhaps because Egypt is very linked to Palestine –Especially Gaza- and we felt like we are 1 with our fellow Egyptians. We stood with Libyans against the violent lunacy of Gaddafi. We stood with the brave souls of Bahrain while they revolted. We stood with Yemenis while they hit the streets for freedom. We stood with Syrians while they demanded some changes. We stood with Jordanians while they gathered to ask for reforms.

I get angry when I read or watch news claiming that Arab revolts are paid for, driven, controlled, directed, maneuvered, blah blah blah! You cant control a whole population and drive them to endager their lives for freedom. The sole of their uprisings is standing against tyranny so quit the biased BS.

We stood united to demand the end of our Palestinian shameful division, thousands of Gazans hit the street in parallel with Palestinians in the West Bank who revolted for the same demand. We both faced local Oppression by Hamas supports and the PA supporters in Ramallah but we tried to hang on. In Gaza, March 15 brave souls decided to stop after numerous attempts failed and ended with detention and violence. While some Palestinians in the west Bank are still on a hunger strike demanding the end of the division, George Hale (4m Maan News Network English Edition) wrote an article describing their situation today and the PA unjust and illegal orders of detention to some of them, read article here:

We also keep tracking the world and the changes that happen: Obama’s fake affection towards Libyan civilians demanding a no-fly zone to protect the pricy oil fields in Libya, Japan’s ongoing crisis and the recent shameful acts by France when they banned Niqab+Burqa to show a real face of racism against Islam.

That’s why Gazans become political experts and analysts at such young age because every minute of their lives include either local, national or global politics.

I would like to send a message to Obama: You are such a fake façade, you launched a campaign for change yet Americans saw no change and we saw nothing. You rushed to deplore the Israeli school bus incident yet you never cared enough to deplore any of Israelis brutal massacres against the children of Gaza. You Appeared on TV acting like the mother Teresa saying you cant stand civilians being killed in Libya and ordered an immediate no-fly zone on Libya when the real reason behind it was to protect the oil fields just like the war on Iraq to steal everything therewith false allegations on non-existing weapons of mass destruction. WE DEMAND A NO-FLY ZONE OVER GAZA, GATHER A WESTERN COALITION AND COME BOMB HELL OUT OF ISRAEL OR JUST SHUT UP AND DON’T SPEW CRAP.

Gazans are excited to hear that The European Campaign to End the Sige on Gaza didnt give up on us and decided to send a second freedom flotilla towards Gaza despite the sad events that occurred on Mavi Marmara on the May of 2010. Israel attacked the Humanitarian and civilian activists on baord killing 9 and injuring many others. We are just praying we wont witness similar events to those devastating ones that happened last year and that they actually make it to Gaza safe and sound this time.

Also recently been hearing endless speculations about a second+near brutal Israeli attack on Gaza similar to 2008-2009 bloody assaults that left 1600 martyr and thousands of injured. Well we don’t care, we can survive everything and we already have allot on our plate to deal with.

The top 3 topics discussed on daily basis in Gaza:

1- Palestinian shameful division &amp; the reconciliation between Green and Yellow Ooops I mean Hamas and Fatah Oops again I mean Gaza and the West Bank.

2- True=Cease fire between Israel and Hamas (I want to say Palestinian resistance in Gaza but usually Hamas takes the shots), endless cease fires and they always are violated by Israel.

3- Israeli continuous attacks on Gaza.

We used to talk about Gaza’s siege long ago but not anymore, we are very used to it by now.

I just want to say that my only connection to the outer world is my Pro-Palestinian friends who are scattered across the globe. Facebook and twitter are my only venues to stay intouch with them and keep them updated about Gaza’s events (mainly bad, rarely good).

When you live in Gaza: You learn not to make futuristic plans because you cant guarantee you might make it till tomorrow, or plan any futuristic traveling intentions because passing Rafah is like passing the Bar-Lev line. Bottom line: while living in Gaza you learn to live day-by-day without any plans.

Long Live Gaza, Long Live Palestine, Long live the Arab nation (not governments, Arab gov.s are disappointing, they never took action against Israeli continuous assaults on Gaza, they thought its enough to deplore them, yet Saudi army rushed to oppress Bahraini protesters), Long Live all pro-Palestinian people+nations+countries, long Live Peace+love+tolerance and Long Live Revolution.

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My name is Sofia Smith. I am a Palestine solidarity activist. This blog was created in the hope of ensuring that information distributed on Twitter and elsewhere is widely available to Palestine solidarity activists.
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